Rare Air: Incredible F-4 Phantom Helmet Cam Departure

We won’t see scenes like this much longer!

Attention Avgeeks! There are only a few more months to see active US Air Force F-4 Phantoms flying at airshows. That’s right. In less than three months, the QF-4 program will be gone forever. With the expiration of the QF-4 program, that means that all associated heritage flights at airshows will also end. According to AirshowStuff, the final flying performance of the QF-4 will be on December 20th at Holloman Air Force Base with 4 other appearances between now and then.

Even if you can’t make it to see them in person, you can still be awed by watching them online. Our friends at AirshowStuff also shared some exclusive F-4 Helmet Cam footage with us. In an era of glass cockpits and multi-function displays, it’s so retro to see some old steam gauges in the Vietnam era cockpit. It’s also refreshing to see some precise stick and rudder flying powered by two afterburning General Electric J79s.

The rare footage came features an F-4 formation departure from the AirVenture Airshow at Oshkosh. On departure, you’ll see a high speed pass, photo pass, and dirty pass. That’s the old ‘mini demo’ routine they used to do when they were part of the Heritage Flight program. After departure, they climbed straight out after the dirty pass and transitioned to cruise.